Category: indwelling Holy Spirit

Walking in the Spirit #4

Sunday, October 7, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, and this identity should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness [sexual lustfulness], idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance [strife, fighting], emulations [jealous quarrels], wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings [drunken, disorderly feasts], and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (verses 19-21). (The use of the pronoun “they” instead of “we” indicates that Christians are not being spoken of here. These are lost people, who have no choice but to sin, to walk in their Adamic nature.)

Our old sin nature produces the above sins. However, we Christians have a new nature in Christ, and it too produces fruit. Rather than sins, it produces the righteousness the Law demanded: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (verses 22,23). Contrast this with verses 19-21, and then re-read today’s Scripture. We have life in Christ: this life is not our old, self-centered life (verses 19-21), but it is selfless, seeking the benefit of others (verses 22,23).

The indwelling Holy Spirit works in us believers to generate “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is called “the fruits of righteousness” in Philippians 1:9-11: “And this I pray, that ye may [be] filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

When we walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to us, Paul’s epistles, we “walk in the Spirit,” who will take that sound doctrine and produce the life of Jesus Christ in us (today’s Scripture). This will bring God glory and praise.

Walking in the Spirit #3

Saturday, October 6, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, and this identity should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (verses 16-18). Notice how the Bible links our “flesh” (sin nature) to the Law. The Mosaic Law demands that we perform, and our flesh loves to perform because it can then boast, “Look at my religious ‘goodness!’”

As Galatians 5:16-18 said above, introducing the Mosaic Law into the Christian life is counterproductive: it creates a war, a struggle, between you and Christ, which is vividly described in Romans chapter 7. The Mosaic Law demands you perform to gain God’s acceptance (Deuteronomy 28:1ff.), while the Christian life is Christ performing in you the believer because you already are accepted of God in Christ (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:6). This is why Mosaic Law-keeping does not belong in our Dispensation of Grace. It “frustrate[s] [hinders] the grace of God” (Galatians 2:21), since God’s grace teaches us it is Christ, not us, who must perform to make us accepted of God!

Galatians 5:18 said, “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” The Holy Spirit does not lead anyone in the Dispensation of Grace to operate under the performance-based acceptance system of Judaism (Mosaic Law-keeping). If a Christian attempts Law-keeping, it is literally his or her own doing (not God’s doing), and it is done to their spiritual detriment (misery and defeat)! The indwelling Spirit of God leads us to enjoy the life we have in Christ, and we should walk by faith in His performance (today’s Scripture).

A New Creature

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV).

As today’s Scripture suggests, when someone trusts Jesus Christ alone as his or her personal Saviour, he or she receives a new identity in Christ!

Although we could list more, here are five things that happen to a person the instant he or she trusts in Christ’s finished crosswork on Calvary as sufficient payment for his or her sins:

  • Circumcised: God severs the old, spiritual, sinful relationship the individual had to Adam, and gives him or her a new relationship with Him, one no longer hindered by sin, but permanently maintained by Christ’s performance and mediatorship (Colossians 2:11-13).
  • Regenerated: The individual, once “[spiritually] dead in trespasses and sins,” is now given new life, eternal life, the life of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 2:1,5).
  • Indwelt: The Holy Ghost comes to live in the inner man of the individual, and He will use God’s written Word—which is studied and believed rightly divided—to transform the mind and heart, and ultimately the lifestyle, of the individual (Romans 12:1,2; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:14).
  • Baptized: The Holy Spirit baptizes the individual into the Church the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). This is not water baptism, but a supernatural baptism that the Holy Spirit performs (Colossians 2:12). This is the only baptism needed today, and it is the only baptism that saves us today!
  • Sealed: The saint is sealed by and with the Holy Ghost until the day of the rapture (Ephesians 1:12,13; Ephesians 4:30). Salvation is permanent, for Jesus Christ paid the price of our sin debt in full, and we can rest in His finished crosswork.

The individual is now a saint, one who is “holy,” separated unto God for the purpose for which He originally created him or her.

Saints, we are dead to sin, so let us walk by faith in our new identity, in our “new creature” status, the “one new man,” everlasting members of the Church the Body of Christ (Ephesians 2:15). 🙂

The Flesh Straineth, Christ’s Love Constraineth #8

Monday, September 17, 2012

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15 KJV).

We would do well to memorize, meditate on, and believe today’s Scripture, a wonderful encapsulation of the Christian life.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate [hinder, disrupt] the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:20,21). We could not achieve righteousness (salvation) by our performance, and we cannot achieve righteousness (godly living) by our performance. If our performance was ever the issue (for salvation or godly living), “Christ is dead in vain [is (present tense) dead for nothing].”

Our Christian lives are really Christ’s life! “Christ liveth in me.” We live by His faithfulness, by His performance working in us. Compare “the Son of God… who loved me, and gave himself for me” with today’s Scripture: “the love of Christ constraineth [motivates] us… [Christ] died for all… [Christ] died for all… [Christ] died for them.”

God’s grace—everything that He has done for us on Calvary’s cross—teaches us: “Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly [responsibly], righteously [acceptable to God], and godly [reflecting God’s values]” (Titus 2:11,12).

We who have trusted Christ are “new creatures in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our lives should reflect this new position/identity. God died to save us from our sins, so why should we return to them? We should let Christ Jesus live His life in and through us, “to prove that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). We do this by placing our faith in this sound Bible doctrine, which God uses to transform our minds, and then our lives!

“The flesh (always) straineth, Christ’s love (always) constraineth….”

*The past eight devotionals have been combined and expanded to form a larger Bible study with the same name, which can be read here or watched here.

The Flesh Straineth, Christ’s Love Constraineth #7

Sunday, September 16, 2012

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15 KJV).

We would do well to memorize, meditate on, and believe today’s Scripture, a wonderful encapsulation of the Christian life.

As people who have trusted Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection alone as sufficient payment for our sins, Christ’s righteousness—His perfect performance—has been applied to our account (imputation). We have a right standing before God (justification): “we [have been] made the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We Christians need not strain to perform in religion, seeking God’s favor and acceptance. God already accepts us in Christ, because of what He did for us on Calvary’s cross! “God hath made us accepted in the beloved [Jesus Christ]” (Ephesians 1:6).

We are not under the Mosaic Law (Romans 6:14,15), but God still cares how we live. Once we understand and rest in God’s great love for us (His sacrifice of His Son on our behalf), it transforms our thinking (today’s Scripture). Since God loves us so much, we Christians should not selfishly live our lives, doing whatever we want. We should, by faith, offer our lives to Him so He can accomplish His will in and through us. As one Christian brother says, “Jesus Christ gave His life for us, so He could give His life to us when we trust Him alone, so He could live His life through us when we trust Him alone!”

Our Christian service is us studying and believing sound Pauline Bible doctrine, and then us letting the indwelling Holy Spirit use that doctrine to work in us (1 Thessalonians 2:13) to generate “the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the praise and glory of God” (Philippians 1:11). These “fruits of righteousness” are Christ living His live in us, conforming our lifestyles to our position in Him.

“The flesh straineth, Christ’s love constraineth….”

The Flesh Straineth, Christ’s Love Constraineth #6

Saturday, September 15, 2012

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15 KJV).

We would do well to memorize, meditate on, and believe today’s Scripture, a wonderful encapsulation of the Christian life.

In Colossians 2:6,7, we read: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” How did we “receive Christ Jesus the Lord?” By our works? NO! By faith in His finished crosswork on Calvary. How does our Christian walk function? By our works? NO! By faith in His finished crosswork on Calvary.

Sinful mankind could never please God, so God did for mankind what he could never do for himself: pay for his sins in full. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure [perhaps] for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

This love—the love of God, “the love of Christ,” not our (feeble) love for Christ—forms the basis for our Christian life, and it “constrains” (empowers, motivates) us (today’s Scripture). Jesus Christ loved us enough to die for our sins, be buried, and be raised again the third day to make us (positionally) accepted before God (justification). “We thus judge [conclude]” that we Christians should allow Christ’s love for us to work in and through us by means of His indwelling Holy Spirit, as we walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of His Word to us (Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon), thereby making our lifestyles (practically) acceptable to God (practical sanctification).

“The flesh straineth, Christ’s love constraineth….”

Access By the Holy Spirit

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18 KJV).

We can neither see nor hear the Holy Spirit, but He plays an active role in our Christian lives on a daily basis.

When people mention prayer, they often speak as though it is talking to God way off in the third heaven, speaking to Someone far, far away from us. However, today’s Scripture explains that the indwelling Holy Spirit gives us this access to our heavenly Father, and that God is actually in close proximity to us. He literally lives in us, the Christians!

Remember, as people who have trusted in the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ on Calvary as sufficient payment for our sins, we have God the Holy Spirit living within us. Wherever we Christians go, we carry the Holy Spirit around in us! “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). “…[T]he Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Timothy 1:14).

In today’s Scripture, Paul is describing how “we both”—both Jews and Gentiles (verses 11,12)—have equal access to Father God today in the Dispensation of Grace, and it is through Jesus Christ but by the Holy Spirit. (Notice today’s Scripture mentions all three members of the Godhead/Trinity.)

The indwelling Holy Spirit links us to Jesus Christ. Technically, the Holy Spirit supernaturally placed us into the Church the Body of Christ when we trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour (1 Corinthians 12:13). When we pray—that is, talk to God the Father—we come through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5), but it is by the intercession of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit appropriates (applies) to us everything that we have in Jesus Christ: He empowers us to do God’s will, He guarantees our salvation in Christ, He teaches us using God’s Word, the Bible, and so on (see Romans chapter 8; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; Ephesians 1:13,14; Ephesians 4:30).

What a marvelous truth!

To Be (For All Eternity)

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 KJV).

As I celebrate my 24th birthday today, we remember that the axiom, “You only live once,” is true… eternally true….

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). According to this verse, we humans have a visible physical body, made of the elements of the earth’s crust, and an invisible spiritual body.

Our soul and spirit—the “real” us—cannot be seen, but they reside in a visible tabernacle (tent), our physical bodies. The soul is our will, our emotions, and our heart (not the muscle of flesh, but our innermost being, what we use to believe God’s Word; see Romans 10:10). “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24a), so He communicates with and educates us by means of His indwelling Holy Spirit connecting with our spirit, our mind, and enlightening us once we meditate on His Word (1 Corinthians 2:12; Ephesians 4:23).

In today’s Scripture, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul explains that we believers, upon physical death, still exist: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Physical death is not the end—the human soul and spirit continue, saved and lost alike. When we who have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, physically die, our souls and spirits go to be with the Lord in the third heaven, and we remain there until the rapture, when we all receive new glorified physical bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). However, when those who do not trust Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, physically die, their soul and spirit literally wake up in hell’s torments, and eventually the everlasting lake of fire (Luke 16:22b,23).

Saved, or lost, you only live once… and that life is for all eternity….

Sound Waves of Sound Doctrine

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

“…But be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” (Ephesians 5:18b-20 KJV).

Think about it…. Music profoundly influences our thinking patterns, and our thinking patterns profoundly influence what type of music we listen to, sing, and compose. Thus, we are compelled to dedicate today’s devotional to God-honoring music.

When we have “renewed minds”—minds that have been transformed by sound (Pauline dispensational) Bible doctrine (Romans 12:1,2; Ephesians 4:23)—then we will be “filled with the Spirit” (today’s Scripture). To wit, the indwelling Holy Spirit utilizes the sound Bible study that we read to “effectually work in us that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Once we believe that sound doctrine, it causes us to “speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” and we “sing and make melody in our heart to the Lord.” This is one way we show our gratitude to God for all that He has done for us (as described in sound Bible doctrine).

Notice how today’s Scripture emphasizes the “heart”—“making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Contrary to today’s “worship,” godly music is not necessarily loud music. Furthermore, godly music is not merely lip movement or instrument playing. It is art that reflects the heart attitude of faith of the composer or singer. Despite their terrible circumstances (prison), Paul and Silas “prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:25). Their singing reflected an internal attitude of faith: no matter what, God was still worthy of praise.

Godly music is not only art that conforms to sound Bible doctrine, but it communicates that sound Bible doctrine to the audience: the sound Bible doctrine that resides in the heart of the believing composer or singer is then transferred to the listeners. What a God-honoring ministry godly music can fulfill!

If we want to recognize, compose, and sing godly music, we had first better learn sound Bible doctrine…. 🙂

Dedicated to C. N.

The Children of God #4

Sunday, June 10, 2012

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28 KJV).

Today’s Scripture describes the unity of Christians, “the children of God.”

After briefly summarizing the identity of the members of the Body of Christ, Paul concludes with, “For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Just as Jesus Christ desired unity amongst His Jewish kingdom believers—“That they all may be one” (John 17:16)—God wants unity in the Church the Body of Christ. (Understand, we should not and do not sacrifice doctrine for the sake of unity!)

If you have trusted in Christ Jesus alone as your personal Saviour, then these seven doctrines/issues unite you with every other member of the Body of Christ. The “[seven-fold] unity of the Spirit” is “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

All members of the Body of Christ are positioned in that one body forever, they are all indwelt by the same Holy Spirit of God, they are all destined to reign in heaven with Christ forever, they have all trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, they all rely on Christ’s faith (Calvary’s finished crosswork), they have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ, and they all have God as their heavenly Father. This is our God-given position in Christ! “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Our Lord looks beyond denominations, ethnicities, social-economic statuses, education, gender, weaknesses, and strengths. He looks at the hearts of all people, to only see two groups: those who are children of the devil (John 8:44), and those who are “the children of God” (today’s Scripture).

*The past four devotionals have been combined and expanded to form a larger Bible study with the same name, which can be read here or watched here.